Godzilla
Godzilla (ゴジラ, Gojira) is a gigantic prehistoric amphibious reptilian monster known as the King of the Monsters. He first appeared in the original Godzilla film, which was produced by Toho Company Ltd. and released on November 3rd, 1954. To date, Toho has produced twenty eight Godzilla films. He also appears as the titular main kaiju protagonist in the 2014 Legendary Pictures's Godzilla reboot. Origins In the original 1954 Godzilla, it is proposed that Godzilla was a type of prehistoric intermediary reptile related to both land and sea reptiles that slept deep underwater for millions of years feeding on deep sea organisms before being disturbed and enhanced by an American hydrogen bomb test. Dr. Yamane proposes that the original Godzilla might have been living among others of his kind prior to the detonation, but the H-bomb completely destroyed his home and drew him out. This idea is supported by official artwork of the 1954 Godzilla living with other Godzillas underwater before a huge explosion destroys his habitat, killing his companions and burning and enraging Godzilla and drawing him to the surface. After the original Godzilla is killed, Yamane proposes that other Godzillas may have survived to the present day and could be awakened by future nuclear tests. This explains how in the various continuities that encompass the series, multiple individual Godzillas have appeared. In the continuity of the Showa era, a second Godzilla appeared only a year later alongside Anguirus, and proceeded to be featured in the remaining films until Terror of Mechagodzilla. In the Heisei era, it is theorized that Godzilla was a type of dinosaur called a Godzillasaurus that had survived the extinction of the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous period living on Lagos Island that was mutated by nuclear tests performed on a nearby island called Rongerik in the 1950s. In Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, the Futurians take the Godzillasaurus away from Lagos Island and place him frozen in the Bering Sea, hoping to prevent his creation, only for him to actually become Godzilla in the first place by being mutated by a nuclear sub crash. Godzilla then is awakened by a volcanic eruption in 1984 and turns his sights on Japan. It is later clarified that the first Godzilla which attacked Tokyo in 1954 was a separate individual from this Godzilla, and still was awakened by the H-bomb test in 1954 and attacked Tokyo before being killed by the Oxygen Destroyer. In Godzilla: Awakening, the prequel to Legendary Pictures' Godzilla, Godzilla was explained to be an ancient life form from the Permian period, having survived various extinction events by consuming geothermal radiation in a hibernation-like state at the bottom of the sea until being awakened in 1954 by a nuclear submarine. Godzilla was theorized by Ishiro Serizawa to have been the alpha predator of his ecosystem, and prevented the other species from overpopulating and overrunning the world, acting as a force of nature that maintained balance. Godzilla's origin is greatly altered for the film Godzilla: Resurgence. In this film, it is proposed that Godzilla is some kind of prehistoric sea creature that found itself surrounded by nuclear waste on the sea floor in the 1950's and rapidly adapted to withstand it. As the creature evolved and began feeding on radioactive material, it gradually grew over a period of 60 years before taking on a form able to come onto land. After coming ashore, the creature continued evolving and growing until it sprouted arms and began standing upright. Appearance Godzilla's appearance has changed between films over the years, but many defining details have endured. In the Japanese films, Godzilla is depicted as a gigantic dinosaur with rough, bumpy (usually) charcoal gray scales, a long powerful tail, and bone-colored dorsal plates (called scutes), shaped like maple leaves. His origins vary somewhat from film to film, but he is almost always described as a prehistoric creature, and his first attacks on Japan are linked to the beginning of the Atomic Age. In particular, mutation due to atomic radiation is presented as an explanation for his great size and strange powers. Godzilla's iconic design is composed of a mixture of various species of dinosaurs; specifically, he has the body and overall shape of an old model of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, the long arms of an Iguanodon, and the dorsal plates of a Stegosaurus. "Gorilla-Whale" The name "Godzilla" is a transliteration of Gojira (ゴジラ), a combination of two Japanese words: gorira (ゴリラ), meaning gorilla, and kujira (鯨 or クジラ), meaning whale. At one planning stage, the concept of "Gojira" was described as "a cross between a gorilla and a whale." The two words "whale" and "gorilla" describe Godzilla's traditional characteristics. The word whale represents his aquatic lifestyle and his bulky size. The word gorilla represents his sheer strength and the strategic thinking he uses when fighting against other monsters. Since Godzilla is neither a gorilla nor a whale, the name had to be devised in a different way for the original film's story. Godzilla's name was originally spelled in kanji as 呉爾羅 by the Odo Island natives. However, Toho chose these characters for sound only, as the combined characters mean "give you net." These characters are also used to spell Godzilla's name in kanji in Godzilla: Resurgence. In this film, it is explained that the characters mean "Incarnation of God" on Odo Island. Contrary to popular belief, the name "Godzilla" is not the idea of the American distributor. Before Toho sold the film to US distributors, Toho's international division had originally marketed English prints of the film under the title of Godzilla, which were shown briefly in Japanese-American theaters. Toho came up with "Godzilla" as an English transliteration of the name "Gojira"." The Japanese-to-English translation method of the Americans in the 1950's also proved that Godzilla was the correct English translation of Gojira. Personality Godzilla, in the original Godzilla, is a creature whose underwater habitat was completely destroyed by a hydrogen bomb test which also killed his family and burned and scarred him. Enraged and driven from his home, Godzilla took out his rage upon humanity, destroying any boats that he encountered and later laying waste to the city of Tokyo. In the subsequent films of the early Showa era, the Heisei era, some of the Millennium era and Legendary Pictures' Godzilla, Godzilla is an animal with at least semi-sapience that stumbles upon human civilization without any malicious intent, only destroying man-made structures or obstacles like buildings when the humans provoke him, or, when dead-set on arriving at a certain location. In Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, Godzilla is a malicious entity created from the restless souls of the dead from World War II. As the Godzilla series continued into the 1960's and 1970's, the terrifying monster developed as a character, and has since become a savior of the Earth, saving the world from other monsters like King Ghidorah, the Showa Mechagodzilla, Biollante, and Monster X, alone or alongside other monsters like Rodan, Anguirus, and Mothra. According to Mothra's Shobijin's translation of Mothra, Rodan and Godzilla's conversation in Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, Godzilla only "hates humans because they hate him," suggesting that Godzilla never had any true malicious intent but was only reacting to constantly being attacked by humans. Rodan later agrees with Godzilla's statement. In Legendary Pictures' Godzilla, Godzilla's behavior seems to be that of a territorial animal. Ishiro Serizawa theorized that this Godzilla is the driving force to restore balance to nature whenever that balance is disrupted, suggesting that he essentially considers the entire Earth to be his territory. However, unlike previous incarnations, he doesn't blatantly attack or plow through ships at sea simply because they are there. In fact, with larger ships like aircraft carriers, he simply dove down under them. Even when he was attacked by the military, he didn't noticeably react or fight back and simply continued to hunt the M.U.T.O.s, even when he was being followed in close proximity by four naval ships. He also does not seem to intentionally cause destruction. Even when he destroyed the Golden Gate Bridge, it did not appear to be intentional, but rather just him reacting from being hit in the gills by missile fire. He shows little interest in humans, instead focusing his attention entirely on the M.U.T.O.s. After defeating both M.U.T.O.s, he leaves the humans alone without any more conflict. In Godzilla: Resurgence, Godzilla is somewhat passive and unaware of humanity at first, only causing destruction at first due to the cumbersome and clumsy nature of his earlier forms, then later as a result of his final form's size as he walks through Tokyo. Godzilla does not retaliate against the J.S.D.F. when they attack him, and seems to barely notice their assault. However, when American B-2 Stealth Bombers drop Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) bombs onto his back and actually injure him, Godzilla becomes enraged and immediately retaliates with his atomic breath, not only destroying the attacking forces but obliterating a huge part of Tokyo at the same time. When Godzilla is assaulted at the film's climax, he retaliates against the humans using his atomic breath and various beam attacks. Powers and Abilities Over the years Godzilla has possessed many powers and abilities to use against his foes. Godzilla is generally considered to be the most powerful kaiju. Atomic Breath Godzilla's signature weapon is his distinctive atomic breath. Godzilla's dorsal plates glow ominously, and then he lets loose with a concentrated blast of radiation from his mouth. This power is commonly mistaken for breathing literal fire, which Godzilla only does in the Marvel comics, The Godzilla Power Hour and other non-film media such as the Recommend! Godzilland OVAs. The intensity of Godzilla's atomic heat ray has changed over the course of his film appearances, varying from a stream of superheated vapor, such as in the 1950's and 1960's, to a beam with explosive and kinetic properties, in the 1970's and onward. In the Heisei series, Godzilla's atomic breath is portrayed as a powerful focused blue laser capable of causing large explosions and severely wounding some monsters such as Rodan and Battra when fired at point-blank range. According to the book Godzilla 1954-1999 Super Complete Works, the temperature of Godzilla's standard atomic breath in the Heisei series is 500,000 degrees Celsius. The ray is usually portrayed as being neon blue, though in Godzilla 2000: Millennium and Godzilla vs. Megaguirus, it is a reddish orange to signify an increased level of power. In Godzilla 2000: Millennium and Godzilla vs. Megaguirus, Godzilla's atomic breath was shown as having incendiary properties and was strong enough to destroy a miniature black hole, while in Godzilla: Final Wars, it possessed incredible range, amazing power and pin-point accuracy, able to hit and destroy a target in outer space and kill or disable most kaiju with a single shot. Godzilla has also demonstrated his ability to actually change the intensity of his atomic breath at will. This is first seen in Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla, when Godzilla's atomic breath changes to his red spiral heat ray to finish off SpaceGodzilla, and later in Godzilla: Final Wars during Godzilla's battle against Keizer Ghidorah. With a quick turn, Godzilla's breath went from the iconic blue beam to the red spiral heat ray, which literally caused the monster Keizer Ghidorah to explode in the upper atmosphere. In Legendary Pictures' Godzilla, Godzilla's atomic breath was more of a focused, fiery shaped energy beam that Godzilla spews out. Godzilla only used it against the M.U.T.O.s after he had taken a severe beating and was already growing weaker, showing that Godzilla only uses it as a last resort against opponents he can't physically overpower on his own. Though it doesn't appear to have the same destructive properties as the versions prior, the blasts were strong enough to push, severely weaken, and eventually kill, the female M.U.T.O. While it may not have the destructive force of its predecessors, this version of Godzilla's atomic breath is still incredibly deadly in its own right. It is, however, entirely possible that Godzilla never used his atomic breath at its full power, seeing as how Godzilla was already extremely weak when he began using it, while the film's official novelization and an earlier screenplay suggest that the female M.U.T.O.'s EMP field interferes with his atomic breath, so whether or not it's capable of more is unknown at this point. The neon-blue glow on Godzilla's dorsal plates begins at the tail and goes all the way to the top of his neck in this film. In Godzilla: Resurgence, Godzilla's atomic breath starts out as a thick black smoke that comes from Godzilla's mouth and spreads around the surrounding area. The smoke coming from Godzilla's mouth eventually ignites into a stream of flame, producing a huge destructive fireball that sweeps through the area. The fire condenses further into a thin highly-destructive purple beam capable of slicing through buildings. When Godzilla first used his atomic breath in the film, he completely destroyed three districts of Tokyo. In addition to firing his atomic beam from his mouth, this version of Godzilla can redirect the beams and fire them from in between his dorsal plates. Godzilla also possesses a small vestigial head on the tip of his tail, out of which he can fire another atomic beam. When Godzilla fires his atomic breath, his body becomes covered in a bright purple glow and his upper jaw unhinges while his lower jaw splits open. Godzilla has nictating membranes that form over his eyes when he fires his atomic breath. In the 2004 video game Godzilla: Save the Earth, Godzilla can also use a variation of his atomic breath called the "Final Beam," a beam of energy that resembles his regular atomic breath except for the fact it is far more powerful and is purple in color. In Save the Earth, he can also launch huge fireballs from his mouth as well. While Godzilla's atomic breath has typically been shown to set entire city blocks ablaze and easily obliterate most military weaponry, many of Godzilla's opponents have shown the ability to withstand it, at least in its standard intensity. For example, in the Showa series, both Rodan and King Ghidorah were able to withstand direct hits from Godzilla's atomic breath with little visible harm. In the Heisei series, Rodan was vulnerable to the beam at close range, though King Ghidorah remained immune until Godzilla utilized his more powerful spiral heat ray. The Heisei version of Mechagodzilla possessed a special diamond-plated armor that allowed it to absorb Godzilla's atomic breath and reflect it through the plasma grenade port on its abdomen. Many of Godzilla's more powerful opponents, including King Ghidorah, Mechagodzilla, SpaceGodzilla, Destoroyah and Monster X, have proven to be resistant to Godzilla's atomic breath until he was forced to utilize a more powerful variation of it. Nuclear Pulse and Magnetic Powers In addition to his very deadly atomic breath, Godzilla can also emit atomic energy in all directions from every inch of his body in a short-range pulse. The pulse was first seen in his fight against Biollante. Godzilla used the nuclear pulse throughout the Heisei series, and many consider the climactic scene in Godzilla 2000: Millennium to be a use of Godzilla's nuclear pulse. In the climax of Godzilla: Final Wars, Godzilla uses something similar to a nuclear pulse to prevent Keizer Ghidorah from draining any more of his energy from him after being surged with Ozaki's energy. In Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla, Godzilla found a way to generate powerful magnetic fields from his body after being struck several times by lightning, which proved devastating against his metallic foe. This is the only time Godzilla ever used this power. In the 1993 film Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla 2, Godzilla demonstrated another ability that may have been a variant of his nuclear pulse. After being struck with Mechagodzilla's Shock Anchor harpoons, Godzilla discharged a form of energy up the cables, severely damaging the robot's internal mechanisms. However, this was not the only time Godzilla ever used this ability. In Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla, Godzilla discharged energy through his physical blows in his offensive against the sinister space mutant SpaceGodzilla. In Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla 2, Godzilla also demonstrated the ability to give off huge amounts of radiation and heat after absorbing Fire Rodan's energy. This heat proved to be so intense that it caused Super Mechagodzilla's synthetic diamond armor to literally melt, allowing the mech to be easily destroyed by Godzilla's spiral ray. In the 1995 film Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, when Godzilla's body temperature begins to approach critical due to his meltdown, he constantly emits more powerful orange-colored nuclear pulses. While these pulses were ineffective against the Super X3, they did stun Destoroyah a few times and caused the area surrounding Godzilla to erupt in flames. In this case, the nuclear pulses appear to be uncontrollable and are a symptom of Godzilla's meltdown. In the 2016 film Godzilla: Resurgence, Godzilla appears to possess a variation of the nuclear pulse. In this film, Godzilla can fire countless beams of atomic energy from in between the dorsal plates on his back, allowing him to strike down targets approaching him from behind. History Showa Series The Godzilla series began with the Showa series, which ran from 1954 to 1975. Aside from the first fifteen Godzilla films, the Showa series is considered to include various other kaiju films produced by Toho, including Rodan and Mothra. The Showa series is characterized by a loose sense of continuity, with most films only referring to the events of the film directly before them, as well as a lighter tone, save for the original Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again. The Showa series introduced some of Godzilla's most famous monster costars, including Anguirus, Rodan, Mothra, King Ghidorah and Mechagodzilla. Heisei Series The Heisei series marked Godzilla's return after a decade's absence, as well as a transition between the reign of the Showa Emperor Hirohito to that of his son Akihito, now dubbed the Heisei Emperor. After several failed attempts to revive the Godzilla series, Toho finally produced the sixteenth entry in the franchise, The Return of Godzilla, in 1984. The Return of Godzilla was a reboot to the series, ignoring all previous films except for the original 1954 film. Despite being released during the Showa era (as the Heisei era did not begin until 1989), The Return of Godzilla is considered the first entry of the Heisei series, due to sharing continuity with all of the films in the Heisei series which succeeded it and due to the nine-year gap between it and the last Showa film, Terror of Mechagodzilla. The Heisei series lasted for seven films and ended with Godzilla vs. Destoroyah in 1995. Millennium Series While Toho had intended to place their series on a ten-year hiatus following the release of Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, the negative response to TriStar's 1998 film prompted them to bring Godzilla out of retirement early. Toho produced the film Godzilla 2000: Millennium in 1999 as a direct response to TriStar's take on the character. This film began the third series of Godzilla films, known as the Millennium series, which ran for six films and ended with Godzilla: Final Wars in 2004. The Millennium series is unique in that, unlike previous series, its films do not all share a single continuity, and are usually completely standalone, using the original film as a backdrop. Only Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla and Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. share continuity. Following the final entry in the Millennium series, Godzilla: Final Wars, which also served as Godzilla's 50th anniversary film, Toho announced that the series would be placed on a ten-year hiatus in order to renew interest. MonsterVerse Series After the release of Godzilla's 50th anneversary film Godzilla: Final Wars, Toho gave Legendary Pictures permission to produce an American reboot of the series titled Godzilla that would be released in 2014, featuring an Americanized version of the character which is more faithful to Toho's Godzilla, in response to Tristar's 1998 failed Godzilla remake. The film, written and directed by Edward Gareths was released in American theaters in May 16, 2014. There is also a sequel called Godzilla: King of the Monsters that was originally going to be released in 2018 but is pushed forward to 2019. There is also a planned King Kong vs. Godzilla-like sequel called Godzilla vs. Kong where he battles King Kong in 2017's Kong: Skull Island (which also belongs to the Legendary continuity) that comes out in 2020. Post-Millennium Series Following the success of Legendary Pictures' Godzilla, Toho announced a new Japanese reboot of the series titled Godzilla: Resurgence that would be released in 2016, in between Legendary's 2014 film and its upcoming 2019 sequel. The film, written and directed by Hideaki Anno with special effects by Shinji Higuchi, was released in Japanese theaters on July 29, 2016. It is not connected to the Legendary series, marking the first time two individual Godzilla film series have been in progress at the same time. The film is notable for being the first Toho Godzilla film to portray Godzilla entirely through CGI. After the film's release, an animated Godzilla series that started in 2017 is currently ongoing in Japan. 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